Searches

[D.Hayden]

2 things that I haven't figured out with the new forum version.

It may have been discussed here somewhere.. but now my search foo is really weak.

1) If I was in a subforum, and clicked search, the default was 'Search this forum only' - is there an easy way to do this now, or do I always have to go advanced, and scroll through the list to highlight just the one forum?

2) The old forum used conditional searches more like real SQL. I could enter 'PISTOL AND PRONE' and it would only return posts that had the word 'pistol' and the word 'prone' in them. The new software seems to return results for any post that has 1) pistol 2) And 3) Prone in them.

The old software you could do OR's and Ands.

Thanks.. Dave

[Graham Smith]

I've notice the same thing regarding "Search this forum only" and have resigned myself to having to use advances search. <sigh>

I never tried using AND or OR in this forum because they aren't used by many search engines anymore (nor is NEAR). While not having spent much time testing the new software, most forums treat the search pistol prone as meaning that both words have to appear somewhere in the thread, but not necessarily in any one post. Changing the search to "pistol prone" will search for that phrase. I have not checked for the use of + or - yet but probably should.

Addendum: pistol prone as a search seems to find either of the words. To find both you need to use +pistol +prone. This rather implies that - should work as well, but as far as I can see it doesn't and the help file is very unhelpful.

Edited February 22, 2010 by Graham Smith

[D.Hayden]

Ok- at least it's not me..

The searches were so much vetter on the earlier board.. oh well.. that's progress

[benos]

Look around in the Bugs forum, you see what we're up against. (I have craploads of hours in this.)

The old software worked with Sphinx Searching. (Installed by Rob Boudrie.) Turns out the new software has a bug with the new Sphinx Search software required for it - Topic Title Only searches don't return any results. And since Sphinx is third party, it won't be fixed in IP's software until they upgrade to v 3.1 (now on 3.0.5). So until then I've set it back to "Fulltext" searching, which is WAY better than our only other option, Standard Text search.

For me the current settings work great - I almost always just do Advanced, forum-specific, Topic Title Only searches.

be

[rvb]

Also (sorry, I hate adding to the pile) I seem to recall on the old forum the search settings allowed smaller words, like 2 or 3 letter.

I tried searching for "SPR" today as well as "WOA" which turned up no results while "white oak" turned up many results with SPR in the threads. Three-Letter Achronyms (TLA) are common and it would be handy to search for them...

-rvb

[Flexmoney]

We have it set for as small as 2 characters...

Minimum search word length

Allowing shorter search words can return more results, such as 'if', 'at', etc.

Note, if using the fulltext search method, your MySQL configuration may override this setting.

Since we are using 'traditional ' > 'fulltext'... we must be bumping into that override ?

[benos]

We have it set for as small as 2 characters...

Minimum search word length

Allowing shorter search words can return more results, such as 'if', 'at', etc.

Note, if using the fulltext search method, your MySQL configuration may override this setting.

Since we are using 'traditional ' > 'fulltext'... we must be bumping into that override ?

It appears so.

I have no idea even where to begin to look for that. But I will start somewhere.

be

[benos]

Reducing the MySQL search character limit is not looking to good at this point.

A tech exchange with IP:

Greetings,

I have my forum set to Fulltext searching. With Sphinx not working, and, my fourm's too large to even consider using Standard Text Search, Fulltext is my only functional option for now.

We've noticed that - I even though I have the minimum search string set to 2 characters, you have to enter 4 characters for any results to be found.

In the ACP for the minimum search string setting:

Note, if using the fulltext search method, your MySQL configuration may override this setting.

So could you please either change the MySQL configuration so 2 character searches will return results, or tell me where/how to do that?

Thank you,

Brian

-------------------------------------------------

Hello.

That restriction is handled entirely by SQL. You cannot override this value in the ACP.

The SQL configuration is only changeable by the server administrator, and is not something we would be able to do.

I remember you have a dedi and an associate who is your server guru, so talk to him, and ask him to change the SQL configuration if he thinks that won't cause a meltdown. He should know how. But before he does, it would be a good idea for him to do a little research first, because the resource usage when going from 4 to 2 character searches *might* increase exponentially, not simply in a linear fashion. I'm just not sure how big a hit that makes on the server resources. I use 2 character searches for the SQL on my own dedi, but it's practically unused. I don't run a forum with a million posts on it, so I can get away with it and don't notice any degradation.

I passed this on to Boudrie.

Depending on his vibe, maybe we'll reduce the limit from 4 characters to 3.

be

[rvb]

A great big Thank You ... not just for looking into this issue but for all the work this forum takes.

-rvb

[sperman]

If I go to the advanced search, select the classified forum, search titles only for "CZ" it returns no results, even though there are several topics with CZ in the title. It would be nice if the limit were set to 2 characters, unless it causes other issues.

[ChuckS]

If I go to the advanced search, select the classified forum, search titles only for "CZ" it returns no results, even though there are several topics with CZ in the title. It would be nice if the limit were set to 2 characters, unless it causes other issues.

I just played around with this a little and found that cz* found 24 titles in the classifieds including the titles with CZ with no adjacent characters.

[sperman]

I assume the asteric is a wildcard character?

Thanks for the help.

[ChuckS]

this may be of some help: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/fulltext-boolean.html

[D.Hayden]

Chuck.. perfect!

Thanks!

[Jman]

GOOD STUFF Chuck thank you!!!

[benos]

this may be of some help: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/fulltext-boolean.html

That is a great link Chuck - thanks!

The current software requires a minimum of 3 characters for a search to work. So appears the "asterick trick" is the third character workaround.

be

[diehli]

Another option (that I've found works brilliantly) is using Google to search the site.

Way to do it: google using the format "search term/s site:brianenos.com". Omit the quotes, though, as per normal, you can use a quoted phrase prior to "site" to search for that particular phrase.

[Jadeslade]

Yeah-I stopped using the forum search cause it is weird-no offense meant-I love the forum and all, it's just that Google lets you zoom down rather than to have to sift through. It may be that I have not spent enough time with the forums search tools,but after four or five hours-I'm done. I'm pretty good on searching and with Booloean logic, too. Anyway-Google works fine-you really don't even need any qualifiers-the Enos site is recognized as an information source and is often in the top three or four if you pick search terms right. I am glad I copied the old Enos information about trigger work and all and saved it to my disc-it seems hard to pick up those threads now. Or impossible. (The stuff from like 02-04)

[kevinj308]

Another option (that I've found works brilliantly) is using Google to search the site.

Way to do it: google using the format "search term/s site:brianenos.com". Omit the quotes, though, as per normal, you can use a quoted phrase prior to "site" to search for that particular phrase.

That is quite possibly the best forum related tip I've ever read. I had no idea I could do that. Thank you very much.

Kevin

[Taildraggerdave]

Good info. Replied to track.

Dave

[benos]

High Lord's impressive post on using google to search BrianEnos.com.

be

[sperman]

I'm sure you guys don't have any control over this, but I wish it could be fixed.

When I'm using the advanced search, I frequently fill in as much info as possible. Date, Keywords, Topic, etc. If I don't get the results I'm looking for, none of this information is saved, so I have to enter it all over again.

[benos]

I'm sure you guys don't have any control over this, but I wish it could be fixed.

When I'm using the advanced search, I frequently fill in as much info as possible. Date, Keywords, Topic, etc. If I don't get the results I'm looking for, none of this information is saved, so I have to enter it all over again.

Right. I know that's a PITA, and unfortunately I do not have any control over it.

The only slightly good news is the IP board v.3.1 is now in beta. So when we're on v3.1, shortly after that, the search function should be as good as it was before our last software upgrade.

be